Posted on 09/27/2009 3:47:38 PM PDT by machogirl
Photo of Obama and Spain's First Children Causes a Stir September 25, 2009 04:53 PM ET | Paul Bedard, Alex Kingsbury | Permanent Link | Print
By Alex Kingsbury, Washington Whispers
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was in for a rude shock if he thought the same privacy conventions that shield the children of public figures in his home country would extend to the United States. Zapatero brought his wife and two daughters along on his trip to New York for the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly, and on Wednesday he and his family posed for a photograph with President Obama at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The photo caused a huge stir in Spain because the public had never before seen an image of its leader's children, ages 13 and 16, who appeared in the photograph sporting slightly gothic attire.
The photo, credited in the Spanish press to White House photog Lawrence Jackson, was posted on the State Department Flickr site, according to sources. Conservative news outlets in Spain prominently featured the photograph of the Socialist leader's family—with the faces slightly pixilated to comply with the country's aforementioned privacy laws concerning minors—in their papers and on their websites. The conservative El Mundo newspaper put the photograph on Page A1. The liberal El Pais, meanwhile, ran a detailed explainer about why it was not publishing the offending image.
After a request by the Spanish government, the White House removed the photograph from the State Department website. But it was too late. Many Spanish in-boxes today were flooded with a series of E-mails with the photograph—obviously altered—depicting the two teens as members of the Addams Family, the band KISS , and J. R. R. Tolkien's troll-like Orcs.
I guess so. They must really like black.
They have a six year head start in Spain.
Michelle is standing with her feet together. Boot girl is doing the MIchelle stance.
Who is that?
The rodent looks properly dressed.
LOL! by the time the night through, it’ll be a masterpiece worthy of t-shirt distribution.
Hey I got a mean pair of sideburns. I love em, but ever since the X-men movies came out people keep calling me Wolverine. I guess there are worse X-men I could be compared to though!
“There are six wraiths behind you. Where the other three are, I do not know...”
I’m must be culturally challenged. I have no idea what Planet Zorch is. Better google.
Gríma, called (the) Wormtongue, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He appears in the second and third volumes of the work, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. He is introduced in The Two Towers as the chief advisor to King Théoden of Rohan and henchman of Saruman. Gríma serves as an archetypal flatterer, liar, and manipulator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%ADma_Wormtongue
Brad Dourif rules!
I thought you had made that up until I looked the flower up. Never heard of it.
Thats a wall tapestry from the East Room .
I don’t know what Makeup did to Brad Dourif, but he was perfect as Wormtongue. Not so much the stringy hair and receding hairline, but the consistency of the skin . . . perfectly creepy!
a poster at the Gawker website:
“This photograph was not taken in public, it was not taken by a journalist, and the subjects are not private citizens but heads of state and their families. Photographs taken in the context of an official state visit are subject to strict protocol and for good reason.
It usually follows that a staffer in the Embassy Press Office will take the photograph (in this case it could have been an official photographer since this is the President of the U.S. we are talking about) and are then deposited in the Press Office. The Press Office is expected to NEVER release any sort of media without prior authorization. Zapatero had no reason to believe that this photo would ever see the light of day. However you want to see it, the Department of State committed a serious breach of protocol.
Hell, the Press Office always gives me a headache when I want to retrieve a picture in which I show up for personal use and I’m a staffer. That should give you some idea of how strict a good Press Office is supposed to be”
You don't know anything about high fashion. It's not a tablecloth, it's a curtain.
Thanks for the Carol Burnett photo....you are so clever....Thanks for the chuckles!
my how time flies............. i remember when Dan Quayle was declared a “Buffoon” for POTATOE-GATE.
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